One of the more important areas in todays health sector is the health of the community, but there appear to be continuous increases in health disparities and aggressive disease for African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, the poor, and uninsured.
What can be done to reduce health disparities in certain populations? Is Universal Healthcare the solution for the problem of the 48 million documented uninsured?
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One example of what can be done to reduce health disparities in certain populations can be summarized in one word, EDUCATION. Education provides a foundation of understanding of how to live with the disease, treat the disease, prevent the disease and ultimately cure the disease.
ReplyDeleteJon, great comments about the importance of education. The next question is how to implement an education program to a population that faces distrust of the healthcare system, lack of awareness of resources, transportation issues, access to facilities, and often times...language barriers that prevent the education.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure this group is familiar with the PBS "Unnatural Causes" Series, and that is essentially the school of thought that the work I do in Holyoke is informed and driven by. It is education AND developing place-based solutions to place-based problems. Physical, social, economic and service components - the environment, access to jobs, inadequate healthcare - present obstacles and cripple neighborhoods and the people who live in them. While many communities across this country are burdened with risk factors that have profound health implications, there are numerous protective factors that can help build and sustain community and individual health, like parks and public spaces, better school food, and reliable public transportation. If you folks are working on the education component and we keep working with the community on environmental, policy and systems change that I think we might just have a great thing going in Holyoke. Power to the people.
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